The nutritional value of soybeans and foods made of purified soy proteins is well established and the renaissance of interest in soy foods is largely the result of documented research of the potential health benefits of isoflavones, a class of phytoestrogens found in abundance in soybeans. Although the recent FDA approval allowing manufacturers of soy foods to make a heart health claim for soy foods containing the mandatory 6.25 g/serving of soy protein (FDA, 1999) did not recognize the value of soy's constituent isoflavones, studies now indicate that phytoestrogens contribute to the cholesterol-lowering effect while also having important non-steroidal properties that contribute to reduced cardiovascular risk factors. The low incidence of hormone-dependent diseases in Asian countries where soy is consumed regularly has been suggested to be due in part to the actions of soy isoflavones.
Phytoestrogens, particularly the isoflavones derived from soy, clover and kudzu, such as genistein, daidzein, glycitein, peurarin, and their glycosidic derivatives, biochanin A and formononetin, and their glycosidic derivatives, exhibit estrogenic properties in some mammalian and human tissues, and exhibit anti-estrogenic properties in other tissues by competitively inhibiting estrogen binding at estrogen receptor sites. Unlike estrogens, these isoflavone phytoestrogens seem not to be associated with an increased risk of breast and uterine cancers, and may actually inhibit the development of breast and prostate cancers.
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in the United States and in Western European countries. Several causative factors are implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease including hereditary predisposition to the disease, gender, lifestyle factors such as smoking and diet, age, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, including hypercholesterolemia. Several of these factors, particularly hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia, contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, a primary cause of vascular and heart disease.
A high blood cholesterol concentration is one of the key risk factors for vascular disease and coronary heart disease in humans. Elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (hereafter “LDL-cholesterol”) and total cholesterol are directly related to an increased risk of coronary heart disease [Cholesterol and Mortality: 30 Years of Follow-Up from the Framingham Study, Anderson, Castelli, & Levy, JAMA, Vol. 257, pp. 2176-80 (1987)] while a a low level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (hereafter “HDL-cholesterol”) is also a predisposing factor. Several clinical trials support a protective role of HDL-cholesterol against atherosclerosis. A study has shown that for every 1-mg/dL increase in HDL-cholesterol in the blood, the risk for coronary vascular disease is decreased by 3% in women [High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Disease: Four Prospective American Studies, Gordon, Probstfield, and Garrison et al., Circulation, Vol. 79, pp. 8-15 (1989)].
Estrogens play an important role in regulating lipid metabolism and maintaining healthy blood vessels, as evidenced by the escalation in plasma cholesterol that occurs after menopause and the fact that cardiovascular disease kills more women than men in the USA and most Western countries. For this reason, there has been a long held belief that HRT would benefit postmenopausal women by providing protection against CVD. The recent findings from the Women's Health Initiative Study of over 16,608 postmenopausal women taking HRT over an eight-year period has failed to show such benefits, and actually found an increased risk of death from thromboembolism and heart disease, especially in the first year of taking combined estrogen and progestin regimen, while significantly increasing the risk of breast cancer. As a consequence of these reports, HRT use has plummeted and women are now increasingly seeking alternative forms of estrogen to provide the benefits of postmenopausal estrogen deficiency. Phytoestrogens, such as isoflavones that act as natural selective estrogen receptor modulators by virtue of the conformational binding to the estrogen receptor are potential attractive alternatives and while there has been much published on the use of soy or clover isoflavones, there is a paucity of data on the potential value of the important metabolite, equol.
Recent studies have determined that soy isoflavones play a role in lowering blood concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in animals, inhibiting the development of atherosclerosis. The effect of isoflavones on blood cholesterol levels in humans is more controversial, but several studies now show the need to have isoflavones present in soy protein to observe cholesterol-lowering effects. A key study by Crouse et al, showed a dose-dependent relationship between the reduction in serum total and LDL-cholesterol and the amount of isoflavones present in soy protein. Independent of the effects isoflavones may have on cholesterol homeostasis, there is now evidence that isoflavones exert important effects on blood vessels. Studies have shown reductions in lipid peroxidation, improvements in arterial reactivity, blood flow, and blood pressure, and decreases in platelet aggregation. We have recently found that a daily diet containing isoflavones reduced the level of C-reactive protein, which is one of the key markers of inflammation, and considered one of the precipitating factors in cardiovascular disease. All of the above are crucial risk-reduction factors for cardiovascular disease.
Isoflavones have been shown to have bone-sparing effects. Thus far 17 in vitro studies of cultured bone cells, 24 in vivo studies of animal models of postmenopausal osteoporosis, and 17 dietary intervention studies show that isoflavones have bone-sparing effects. In all of these studies it has been the soy isoflavones or clover isoflavones that have been examined. We have shown for the first time that equol is an important bone-trophic agent and that unlike estrogens, it has the ability to not only reduce the activity of the bone-resorbing cells, but can actually increase bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.
While the bulk of the scientific literature has focused on the natural isoflavones in soy or clover, little has been reported on the actions or effects of their intestinally derived metabolites and there remains a need to develop further compounds and methods that can safely provide treatment or preventive benefits in mammals and humans.
Equol (7-hydroxy-3-(4′-hydroxyphenyl)-chroman), a non-steroidal estrogen, was first isolated and identified from pregnant mares urine in 1932 and was later identified in the urine of humans consuming soy food. Equol has a structure similar to the steroidal estrogen estradiol. Equol is unique among the isoflavones in that it possesses a chiral center and as such exists as two distinct enantiomeric forms, the R- and S-enantiomers. All previous studies on equol appear to have been conducted with the racemic form of equol. There has in general been a lack of appreciation that two forms of equol exist and to our knowledge no previous study has reported on the specific actions or activity of the individual enantiomers. Equol when originally identified in mare's urine was reported to be optically active, existing as the R-enantiomer. Later, this was found to be an incorrect assignment and evidence was provided that the form of equol isolated from horse urine was in fact the S-enantiomer. For the first time, we have evidence that the human form of equol produced in the intestine, is exclusively the S-enantiomer, and we have synthesized and isolated the individual enantiomers, and shown significant differences in their respective affinities for estrogens receptors (ER), ERα and ERβ.
While equol was originally found to have no estrogenic action when injected into ovariectomized mice in large doses, later findings showed that it was the agent responsible for an infertility syndrome in sheep.
Also, (−)equol was originally reported as having no estrogenic activity in the ovariectomized mouse, but later the racemic mixture of equol proved to behave as a weak estrogen, while its precursors, daidzein and formononetin had no or negligible estrogenic activity.
Equol is not normally present in the urine of most healthy adults unless soy is consumed. The formation of equol in vivo has been exclusively dependent on intestinal microflora as evidenced from the finding that germ-free animals do not excrete equol, and that equol is not found in the plasma and urine of newborn infants fed exclusively soy foods from birth.
Equol is exclusively a non-steroidal estrogen that does not occur naturally in any plant-based products.